Download Chapter 3 - Sheriff Larry Waller

Mainstream and Crosscurrents, Second Edition
Chapter 3
Theories of Crime
Demonology

The earliest explanations for deviant
behavior attributed crime to supernatural
forces.

One method to determine guilt or
innocence was trial by ordeal.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
2
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Classical school of criminology

States that people freely choose to
engage in crime.

Represented primarily in the works
of Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy
Bentham.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
3
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories
Classical school

Beccaria's Nine Principles: Free will and
punishment based on humane principles.

Bentham's utilitarianism theory: People
are guided by desire for pleasure and
aversion to pain.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
4
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Positivist school of criminology

A natural outgrowth of the rise of the
scientific method.

Looked to science to understand crime
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
5
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Biological theories






Phrenology
Atavisms
Physiology
Somatotyping
XYY Syndrome
Biochemistry
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
6
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Biological theories
Phrenology
Franz Joseph Gall measured bumps
on the skull to determine personality.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
7
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Biological theories


Atavisms—The appearance in a
person of physical features thought to
be from earlier stages of human
evolution.
Lombroso believed lawbreakers were
physically different from the lawabiding.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
8
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Biological theories
Physiology
Earnest Hooton claimed there were
differences between the features of
criminals and the features of noncriminals.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
9
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Biological theories

Somatotyping—The use of body types and
physical characteristics to classify human
personalities.

Sheldon used this term to describe his three
physical variations: endomorph,
mesomorph, and ectomorph.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
10
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Biological theories

XYY Syndrome—A condition in which
a male is born with an extra Y
chromosome.

A chromosomal condition that, at one
time, some scientists thought was
connected to anti-social behavior.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
11
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Biological theories
Biochemistry
Hormones, brain structure, and brain
chemistry all appear to affect
behavior. However, isolating any
actual, identifiable physical influence
on crime is problematic.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
12
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Psychological theories





Psychoanalytic theory
Behaviorism
Observational learning
Cognitive psychological theory
Psychopathy
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
13
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Psychological theories
Psychoanalytic theory
Freud's theories focused on
unconscious forces and drives. Freud
believed healthy people had a proper
balance of id, ego, and superego.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
14
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Psychological theories

Behaviorism—The assessment of human
psychology via the examination of objectively
observable and quantifiable actions, as
opposed to subjective mental states.

Based on operant conditioning, which states
that behavior is more likely to occur when
rewarded and less likely to occur when
punished or not rewarded.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
15
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Psychological theories


Observational learning—The process of
learning by watching the behavior of others.
Reciprocal determinism—What we think
affects how we behave and how we perceive
our surroundings. In return, our surroundings
reflect our behavior to some extent, which
affects how we think.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
16
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Psychological theories
Bandura’s reciprocal determinism
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
17
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Psychological theories
Cognitive psychological theory


Kohlberg’s theory of moral development:
Human moral development proceeds
through clearly defined stages.
Criminal offenders are stuck at the lower
stages of moral development.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
18
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Psychological theories
Psychopathy


Psychopathy refers to a specific condition which
is only sometimes paired with heinous criminal
offending.
Antisocial personality disorder: “a pervasive
pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the
rights of others that begins in childhood or early
adolescence and continues into adulthood.”
(American Psychiatric Association)
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
19
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
CrossCurrents Positivist school of criminology
The criminal profile

Criminal profiling is an aspect of the now
set-aside trait approach of psychology

The FBI began to use criminal profiling in
1970

One of the first official uses of profiling to
investigate a criminal suspect occurred in
1956 in New York City.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
20
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Sociological theories






Chicago school
Differential association theory
Strain theory
Social control theory
Neutralization theory
Labeling theory
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
21
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Sociological theories

Chicago school—Criminological theories
that rely, in part, on individuals’
demographics and geographic location to
explain criminal behavior.

Examined external causes of crime, such as
poverty and bad neighborhoods.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
22
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Sociological theories

Differential association theory—A
theory developed by Edwin Sutherland
that states that crime is learned.

Sutherland claimed that crime is
learned. Akers combined this with
behaviorism.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
23
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Sociological theories

strain theory—The causes of crime can be
connected to the pressure on culturally or
materially disadvantaged groups or individuals to
achieve the goals held by society, even if the
means to those goals require the breaking of
laws.

Merton developed this theory influenced by
Durkheim's theory of anomie, stating that
problems arise with unequal access to societal
norms.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
24
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Sociological theories

Social control theory—Seeks not to explain
why people break the law, but instead explores
what keeps most people from breaking the law.

Hirschi: Crime occurs when the social bond is
weakened.

Four elements of the social bond: attachment,
commitment, involvement, beliefs
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
25
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Sociological theories
Neutralization theory—A perspective that states
that juvenile delinquents have feelings of guilt
when involved in illegal activities and search for
explanations to diminish that guilt.
Seeks to explain how delinquents use five
techniques of neutralization to drift between
conventional and delinquent lifestyles.
 Denial of responsibility
 Denial of injury
 Denial of victim
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
 Condemnation of condemners
 Appeal to higher loyalty
26
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Sociological theories

Labeling theory—Considers
recidivism to be a consequence, in
part, of the negative labels applied to
offenders.

Offenders strive to live up to the
outsider or deviant label. Lemert
distinguished between primary and
secondary deviation.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
27
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Critical sociological theories

Marxism

Gender and justice

Critical race theory
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
28
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Critical sociological theories
Marxism
Sociologists used Marxist theory to
note that those in power control the
making and enforcement of the law.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
29
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Critical sociological theories
Gender and justice
Examines how women are treated
differently from men. Also notes that
some research assumed women as a
subset of men and used the same
findings for both men and women.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
30
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Criminological Theories – Positivist School
Critical sociological theories
Critical race theory
Observes that people of color are overrepresented at every decision point of
the criminal justice system.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
31
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
CrossCurrents Positivist school of criminology
A history of violence in Chicago

Is Chicago any different from other large
US cities in its upsurge of violent crime?

Besides social disorganization, what other
more contemporary theories may help
explain crime in Chicago?
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
32
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Integrated Theories of Crime
Recognizing that traditional biological,
psychological, and sociological theories
are of limited utility, integrationists
attempt to link theories.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
33
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Integrated Theories of Crime

Integrated Theory of Delinquent
Behavior

Interactional Theory of Delinquency

Control Balance Theory
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
34
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Integrated Theories of Crime
Integrated Theory
of Delinquent Behavior


Youths experience issues with strain,
social control, and association with
delinquent peer groups regardless of class
The types of issues differ depending on
social class depending on class
expectations or aspirations.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
35
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Integrated Theories of Crime
Interactional Theory
of Delinquency
Considers how parental attachment
diminishes as youths grow older and how
commitment to conventional values, such
as employment and education, protects
the youth from delinquent behavior.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
36
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Integrated Theories of Crime
Control Balance Theory

All relationships exhibit a power
differential.

A balance between the amount of
control one has and the amount that
one is controlled that determines how
or whether he or she will break the law.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
37
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Life-Course and Developmental Theories
The life-course perspective uses
longitudinal data to observe how
subjects grow and mature over long
periods of time.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
38
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Life-Course and Developmental Theories


Moffitt’s Pathway Theory
Laub and Sampson’s PersistentOffending and Desistance-fromCrime Theory
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
39
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Life-course and Developmental Theories
Moffitt’s Pathway Theory

Life-course-persistent offenders engage
in antisocial behavior for long periods of
time.

Adolescence-limited offenders have few
problems in childhood and are unlikely to
continue adolescent antisocial behavior
into adulthood.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
40
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Life-course and Developmental Theories
Laub and Sampson’s Persistent-offending and
Desistance-from-crime Theory
Some youths continue in a trajectory of
crime throughout their lives, while others
experience turning points in which they
became more involved in society and
conventional behavior.
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
41
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Questions

What is the classical school of
criminology’s main argument?

What factors gave rise to the positivist
school of criminology?

What advantages do life-course theories
have over other criminological theories?
Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/e
John Randolph Fuller
42
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.